Consciousness and sleep

[Nearly Sane]

The ongoing discussion on other thread of consciousness suffers from an inconsistency of definition, IMO. This article illustrates some of the problem.


http://tinyurl.com/hflj93j

[Walter]

The ongoing discussion on other thread of consciousness suffers from an inconsistency of definition, IMO. This article illustrates some of the problem.


http://tinyurl.com/hflj93j

When I was at school in my teens my friend and I had been discussing dreams for some time .  She reckoned she could decide what dream she wanted before she went to sleep then she would experience that dream . I didn't believe her so we decided to set up an 'experiment' to test it. We both agreed on a scenario which  involved us meeting up at a tree on a river bank which we were both familiar with and perform a 'task' .
We would then meet next day and discuss what happened in our dream
Unfortunately after about a month of trying we never met at the tree.
However during that month we became very close and one spring day we both went together to the tree on the river bank . We then proceeded to perform the task .
I remember that day very fondly.

[Nearly Sane]

When I was at school in my teens my friend and I had been discussing dreams for some time .  She reckoned she could decide what dream she wanted before she went to sleep then she would experience that dream . I didn't believe her so we decided to set up an 'experiment' to test it. We both agreed on a scenario which  involved us meeting up at a tree on a river bank which we were both familiar with and perform a 'task' .
We would then meet next day and discuss what happened in our dream
Unfortunately after about a month of trying we never met at the tree.
However during that month we became very close and one spring day we both went together to the tree on the river bank . We then proceeded to perform the task .
I remember that day very fondly.

Sounds an unscientific, if satisfying, approach

[Walter]

Sounds an unscientific, if satisfying, approach

Throughout the 'experiment' the scientific rigour was not the aim but as a 'method' of reaching a satisfactory conclusion , it worked perfectly. Even if it was a little drawn out .

[wigginhall]

A lot of neuroscience research deals with aspects of cognition, and I'm not sure that consciousness itself comes into the picture.  Various cognitive tasks such as memory and learning can be delineated, without going into the 'hard problem'.   

But I agree that just talking about consciousness is too vague, although I suppose in philosophy there is a tradition of asking where consciousness comes from, with people like Goldilocks, (David Chalmers).    He asks the question, 'why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all?'.   I think others such as Dennett think this is the wrong question!

The 'mysterians' such as Colin McGinn, argue that it will never be explained, hence 'mysterians'. 

Chalmers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRhtFFhNzQ;

McGinn:

http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2012/02/consciousness-mind-brain

Dennett: 'Consciousness explained', (book), jokingly referred to as 'Consciousness explained away'.